Dive Brief:
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The University Title Generator, a site that generates a fictitious higher ed title and salary and allows users to “click here if this position is not prestigious enough for you,” has shed a humorous light on excess in higher ed administration.
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Inside Higher Ed reports the site was developed by a Ph.D. student who said it started as a joke, but added that the endless array of fictitious titles for administrators (but not professors) points to stagnation and a top-heaviness in institutions across the country.
- An algorithm determines the accompanying salaries for the generated position based on key words: “Chancellor” comes with a base salary of $400,000, and words like “athletic,” “donor,” or “investor” increase it, while “academic,” “diversity” and “learning” take it down, Inside Higher Ed reports.
Dive Insight:
Titles like “Associate Chancellor of the Office of Community Services” ($380,211), “Principal Deputy Executive for Internal Technology for the Committee on Employee Technology”($83,719) and “Associate Executive for the Committee on Academic Compliance” ($204,124) were intended to poke fun at the arbitrary and excessive nature of some higher ed administrative structures, but people quickly pointed out how realistic some of them sounded.
With competing pressures to make college more affordable while working within decreasing state and federal budgets and increased scrutiny over skyrocketing tuition and student fees, it is important for institutions to examine their priorities and determine whether functions can be consolidated and salaries and additional compensation re-examined.